(Dec. 05, 2020  12:53 AM)LOL-y Rancher Wrote:

(Dec. 05, 2020  12:00 AM)Zeutron Wrote: Been thinking about this lately and wanted to see where the opinions were leaning. Who do you guys think was/is the better/closer friend to Valt. Shu or Rantaro? And if so, why? I’m going with Rantaro because he’s been way more supportive and consistent. Shu is more of a childhood and later close friend in my opinion.

EarthHelios Needforspeed Vtryuga Admiral W LOL-y Rancher 6Jupiter5 Eclipse Force Valtryek Aoi God Dragruler g2_ @XsabxmaniacX  #Fafnir DeltaZakuro (finally remembered to tag him) Jinbee CheetoBlader

I've gotta say it has to be Rantaro, without a doubt. He's pretty much Valt's partner in crime, always sticking with him to the very end, always had Valt's back and stuck up for him when anyone insults his friend. The fact that Rantaro is incredibly loyal, always helps train him to becoming a stronger blader and always looked out for Valt, whenever he's in danger, are definitely points to his favour.

Whilst he does butt heads with Valt quite a bit in the early seasons,  it never gets to any serious levels. The worst the duo have acted towards each other was back in the second episode of the first season, where Valt acted cocky and arrogant towards Rantaro after defeating him, but even back then it wasn't portrayed all that seriously and they end up having a laugh about it at the end.

Make no mistake, I think Shu is a great friend to Valt and has maintained said friendship with Valt since childhood to this very day. Valt and Shu have contrasting personalities that somehow work together as they help each other balance out a bit. Valt's happy-go-lucky and friendly attitude helps Shu become a lot more open, whilst Shu's level-headed personality helps ground Valt a bit more.

(Dec. 05, 2020  9:49 AM)Limetka Wrote:

(Dec. 05, 2020  12:53 AM)LOL-y Rancher Wrote: I've gotta say it has to be Rantaro, without a doubt. He's pretty much Valt's partner in crime, always sticking with him to the very end, always had Valt's back and stuck up for him when anyone insults his friend. The fact that Rantaro is incredibly loyal, always helps train him to becoming a stronger blader and always looked out for Valt, whenever he's in danger, are definitely points to his favour.

Whilst he does butt heads with Valt quite a bit in the early seasons,  it never gets to any serious levels. The worst the duo have acted towards each other was back in the second episode of the first season, where Valt acted cocky and arrogant towards Rantaro after defeating him, but even back then it wasn't portrayed all that seriously and they end up having a laugh about it at the end.

Make no mistake, I think Shu is a great friend to Valt and has maintained said friendship with Valt since childhood to this very day. Valt and Shu have contrasting personalities that somehow work together as they help each other balance out a bit. Valt's happy-go-lucky and friendly attitude helps Shu become a lot more open, whilst Shu's level-headed personality helps ground Valt a bit more.

Wait, what? I really don't see how this is even up for debate, Valt literally calls Shu his best friend like thousand times every season.

(Dec. 05, 2020  12:00 AM)Zeutron Wrote: Been thinking about this lately and wanted to see where the opinions were leaning. Who do you guys think was/is the better/closer friend to Valt. Shu or Rantaro? And if so, why? I’m going with Rantaro because he’s been way more supportive and consistent. Shu is more of a childhood and later close friend in my opinion.

EarthHelios Needforspeed Vtryuga Admiral W LOL-y Rancher 6Jupiter5 Eclipse Force Valtryek Aoi God Dragruler g2_ @XsabxmaniacX  Isaiah.burleyDeltaZakurofinally remembered to tag him) Jinbee CheetoBlader.

(Dec. 05, 2020  9:53 AM)Zeutron Wrote:

(Dec. 05, 2020  9:49 AM)Limetka Wrote: Wait, what? I really don't see how this is even up for debate, Valt literally calls Shu his best friend like thousand times every season.

Well the original question I asked was something along the lines of “who do you think is the better friend” and let’s be honest, Rantaro is a much better/closer friend than Shu. Heck, scroll through the last couple of pages, everyone seems to think so.

(Dec. 05, 2020  9:58 AM)Limetka Wrote:

(Dec. 05, 2020  9:53 AM)Zeutron Wrote: Well the original question I asked was something along the lines of “who do you think is the better friend” and let’s be honest, Rantaro is a much better/closer friend than Shu. Heck, scroll through the last couple of pages, everyone seems to think so.

Okay, I kinda misunderstood the question, sorry :D 

if that's the case, it's hard to choose. Rantaro / Ranjiro are really loyal to their best friends. I would still say that Shu has Valt's back all the time though, he just doesn't make a big deal out of it.

(Dec. 05, 2020  9:49 AM)Limetka Wrote: Wait, what? I really don't see how this is even up for debate, Valt literally calls Shu his best friend like thousand times every season. I guess you could argue that Valt's friendship with Shu seems more one-sided than with Rantaro, but I'm pretty sure it's just that Shu isn't the emotional type. Also When Valt and Rantaro talk it's all just banter, but with Shu they discuss important things a lot too.

(Dec. 05, 2020  9:56 AM)PinkRose Wrote:

(Dec. 05, 2020  12:00 AM)Zeutron Wrote: Been thinking about this lately and wanted to see where the opinions were leaning. Who do you guys think was/is the better/closer friend to Valt. Shu or Rantaro? And if so, why? I’m going with Rantaro because he’s been way more supportive and consistent. Shu is more of a childhood and later close friend in my opinion.

EarthHelios Needforspeed Vtryuga Admiral W LOL-y Rancher 6Jupiter5 Eclipse Force Valtryek Aoi God Dragruler g2_ @XsabxmaniacX  Isaiah.burleyDeltaZakurofinally remembered to tag him) Jinbee CheetoBlader.

No-one has said this yet but: Both of them, equally.

(Dec. 05, 2020  10:08 AM)PinkRose Wrote:

(Dec. 05, 2020  9:56 AM)PinkRose Wrote: No-one has said this yet but: Both of them, equally.

To clarify a bit more, I'll just say this. Rantaro's the kind of friend who's all fun to hang out with and will follow you everywhere until the end. Shu's the kind of friend you look up to and continously try to best, with him being very supportive to you (and also very competitive), even if he doesn't show it all the time.
And that's why I think they're equal.

---

Man, Valt has some really great friends now that we mention it

(Dec. 05, 2020  9:41 AM)Zeutron Wrote: I still think Shu getting a new outfit was totally unnecessary. I can’t think of any hidden meaning or implications. The new design is cool but It just seems dumb to me.

(Dec. 05, 2020  10:17 AM)Limetka Wrote: On a similiar note,  what about Drum's best friend? Amane or Delta?

(Dec. 05, 2020  10:19 AM)LOL-y Rancher Wrote:

(Dec. 05, 2020  9:41 AM)Zeutron Wrote: I still think Shu getting a new outfit was totally unnecessary. I can’t think of any hidden meaning or implications. The new design is cool but It just seems dumb to me.

I like Shu's new jacket, it reminds me of the attire worn by Anubian Chief Doggie Kruger from Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger. It looks pretty badass, and definitely his coolest outfit.

However, whilst I think his new jacket is cool, I don't like that he's the only one who gets a special new attire. Whilst I'm sure there's some sort of metaphorical reasoning behind him wearing a new jacket, it really just feels like Shu gets to have special focus once again.

I get that he's a really popular character and is one of the most major characters of the franchise, but tone it down. I want every legend to have near equal focus, not just Shu all the time.

And that's another problem I personally have with Shu. He feels like the Tommy Oliver of the Burst franchise, where a character becomes so popular that they get granted more focus than even the main heroes. The fact that he's the only character outside of the three new ones in Sparking to get a major role really hammers that down, even Valt didn't feel like he stole the spotlight from others in this season (and Valt is more justified). Sometimes, there's too much of a good thing.

Every season he appears always made damn sure that he got a good chunk of focus or else viewers might not be interested in the series, probably explaining why GT is the least popular of the Burst seasons (amongst other reasons).

The first two seasons, I understand. But then in Cho-Z, why did he have to be the one to train and mentor Aiga (the main character in Cho-Z) specifically out of all the veteran bladers? Before anyone says it's because of Aiga's dark resonance being related to Shu's past, keep in mind that this happens right after Aiga's dark resonance is gone. Maybe it's because they're both balance types, but even that reason can only go so far. I don't mind that Shu trained him, but also have veterans like Free and Lui (who just vanished after the 15th episode of Cho-Z) train Aiga as well.

Then in Sparking, they had him train and mentor Lean as well (the main antagonist of Sparking), giving him yet again more importance and focus than the other veterans yet again. Again, Shu is great but he doesn't need to be one of the central focus all the time.

(Dec. 05, 2020  10:17 AM)Limetka Wrote: On a similiar note,  what about Drum's best friend? Amane or Delta?

(Dec. 05, 2020  10:17 AM)Limetka Wrote: On a similiar note,  what about Drum's best friend? Amane or Delta?

(Dec. 05, 2020  10:20 AM)Zeutron Wrote: Agreed. Thanks to guys like him taking up all the space where is the focus for other characters like Drum? He’s quite literally the least focused character this season and it’s almost like he’s invisible. I’m not even joking, it got so bad they had to randomly throw him into that episode where Shu battled Lane just to increase his screen time.

(Dec. 05, 2020  10:47 AM)LOL-y Rancher Wrote:

(Dec. 05, 2020  10:17 AM)Limetka Wrote: On a similiar note,  what about Drum's best friend? Amane or Delta?

It's surprisingly quite hard to decide, because there are arguments to be made for Drum and Delta's friendship.

On one hand, Delta never considered Drum a friend at all until much later on. He's openly considered him a nuisance and wasn't interested in talking to him at all, made even worse when Valt chose Drum over Delta to battle against Slash Valkyrie which caused a bit of jealousy. He pushes him away constantly when Drum wanted to help Delta, and didn't seem to be concerned when Drum's bey was destroyed by Arthur, but more that he himself lost to Arthur.

On the other hand, he was the first person to help Drum when he was struggling with his launches at first (which in return had Drum do the same thing with Gwyn, who he considered a friend to him as well at the time). When Venom Diabolos was destroyed, Drum still comforted him and Delta didn't reject it that time. Once Delta calmed down and started opening up, he became a lot more friendly.

He was the one who decided to join Team Victories to battle against HELL, even when Drum lost to him in their last battle. He and Drum have shared a laugh and have supported each other during their battle against HELL, to the point where Delta sacrifices some of Master Diabolos' spin to Imperial Dragon so Drum could keep going against Gwyn with a neat animation showing it's a metaphorical representation of Delta helping Drum boost, in contrast to Delta's more selfish attitude early on in the season. He also gave Drum his Master Base for the last battle, working with Drum instead of against Drum showing he was willing to combine their efforts together.

I'd say it started off being Amane, but ends up being both equally.

(Dec. 05, 2020  10:20 AM)Zeutron Wrote: Agreed. Thanks to guys like him taking up all the space where is the focus for other characters like Drum? He’s quite literally the least focused character this season and it’s almost like he’s invisible. I’m not even joking, it got so bad they had to randomly throw him into that episode where Shu battled Lane just to increase his screen time.

Poor Drum, he was the main character from the last season and is treated as an afterthought in this season. Whilst it's understandable that he might not be as powerful as some other Legendary Bladers, he's the only representative from GT so it's a bit disappointing that his screentime is lacking compared to other characters, he only got about as much focus as Sisco.

(Dec. 05, 2020  10:52 AM)Zeutron Wrote: I wouldn’t say he isn’t as powerful as other bladers this season since the distinctive power levels only seem to be a manga thing for s5 excluding Valt and Shu who are stronger cause of plot (unless I’m just imagining things). IMO Even Silas has more focus this season. I think the characters or “character” with too much focus is Shu, The characters with a good amount of focus/screen time are Rantaro, Aiga and Valt and the characters who got pushed aside are Free, Drum, Lui, Silas and Ranjiro. Rantaro is a main character this season so it is kind of understandable that he appears more but I still feel like him and Aiga have the ideal focus.

(Dec. 05, 2020  10:12 AM)Zeutron Wrote: While I’m on this topic I would like to say that it’s pretty weird how they got rid of the idea of deuteragonists after beyblade burst s1? In s2-5 all main cast members are exactly that, just main cast members save for the protagonist and antagonist who are prominent.

(Dec. 05, 2020  6:03 PM)Eclipse Force Wrote: So Rantaro's easily gone but maybe at the expense of Dragon. Then we have the big Valt vs Lui. I'm thinking they'll draw.

After getting knocked around and adjusting to the stadium, I'm thinking Hikaru will manage to ring out Lain but also get bursted. Then Hyuga will get crushed by Shu.

Free and Silas are about the same level as Aiger and Ranjiro actually. I'm thinking just a big tie.